Guilford County School's Art Educator's Blog

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Welcome!

The purpose of this blog is to give Guilford County School's Art Educators a place to communicate their thoughts and share ideas. I enjoyed reading all of the terrific comments that were being delivered through email and felt that as professionals we needed a place to discuss what is on our minds.

We learn so much from one another. For many of us, we are the only visual arts teacher in our school. It is so rewarding when we get a chance to get together and talk about art, what is working well in our classrooms and what needs improvement. In addition to monthly meetings, this blog can be a source for discussions that can't wait until the next meeting.

Please don't think of this as one more thing that you have to put on your Things To Do List. Respond if you feel like it, share some pictures if you have time, but otherwise just consider this a professional forum for your voice.

Monday, January 17, 2011

1. The meeting began with sharing lesson plans. Karen Torrence, Allen Middle School, shared her lesson plan of incorporating Social Studies, poetry and art in student-made PowerPoint presentations in which they took digital photos of themselves and manipulated these with background images in Paint.

Next Vickie Chaffin, Kernodle Middle School, shared several sub-plans. One packet was of “Fun Sub Plans” consisting of gridded images that were numbered and were to be re-drawn in a larger grid by the students. Then the final image could be inked and colored. The second was to draw a modern version of Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.” Finally, there was a Rube Goldberg cartoon drawing of designing an invention that can catch a turkey in 10 steps or procedures.

Vickie also shared “Amazing Mazes” for 7th graders in which the students design a maze, create instructions, include traps, hazards and dangers, and be inked and colored. The students have to write answers to a maze plan sheet, and create a reflections/analysis/evaluation sheet. Vickie included her rubric for evaluation, also.

The final lesson plan Vickie shared was a collage of a Picasso-like portrait in which the student cut different images of different people from magazines and arranged them to create an abstract portrait with a background. Next the teacher makes a black-and-white copy of the piece and the student then re-draws it in ebony pencil trying to match the gray-tones.

Caitlin Fisher, Southeast Middle School, shared her “Flexed Student Packet” that includes a word search of Renaissance Art vocabulary, an “Easy Bar Graph,” careers in art work search, “Starry Night” grid, Stalactite City and Pondering Plumbing Possibilities. Caitlin also recommended getting Scholastic Art Magazine to use as handy lessons. The discussion included that the media specialist might be a possibility for funding these. She demonstrated her 6th grade wheel lessons involving “Spinning Elements” in which the students create wheels of the Elements of art. Lastly, Caitlin shared torn paper landscapes that involve watercolor techniques and tearing paper to create the images of landscapes.

2. The New Bern Art Conference was discussed. Workshops included Christian Berry photographs of architecture and making cardboard replicas, collorgraph printmaking, and modeling with shredded paper, Elmer’s glue and/or wallpaper paste. Karen Torrence added that she had used sawdust and wallpaper paste before.

Prezi.com was touched on for making interesting and animated 3-D PowerPoints.

Sam Peck is working on 100 Visual Journals and Guilford County will be doing a “page.” More to come on this.

3. New “Drafts” for the standard course of study for art 3.0 that will be implemented in 2012 were distributed. New numbering and strands were discussed. For high school, new proficiency levels are beginning, intermediate, proficient and advanced with strands of Visual Literacy, Contextual Relevancy and Critical Response.

4. Scholastics will again be at Barton College in Wilson, NC, Jan. 3-5. Discussion included driving the selection down to Wilson vs. the cost of shipping and raising the funds. Suggestions included getting the PTSA, Art Club funds, having each student pay or having the teacher pay.